Checkmate
by Ninsetta Tristel Sundar
Summary: Adianna's daughter, now a vampire, is engaged in what she thinks is a private battle of wits and power with her mother until her closest friend from her days as a Vida is caught in the middle.


Right. So this was my first try at AAR fanfiction. Obviously none of the characters belong to me. I don't know if there will be any pairings of note yet. Bad me I haven't planned out much more of the story. It comes along in bits and pieces. It's set about 30 years after Shattered Mirror.  
* Checkmate-Chapter One-Losing Fast *  
  
~Once I swore to myself that I would never allow myself to be lead astray by power. That I would stay true to who I am, no matter what the cost. But, now, like always, I feel the power flowing through me and it changes me. I become that power, riding it's wave, my conscious mind with its few scruples completely washed away by the tide. All I feel is a desire to get back what has been taken from me. And that is who I am now. That anger and power, I was that before, but I hid it. But now I am free to be as my nature called me to be.~  
  
"Check."  
  
Nina sounded bored when she said that. But then Nina always sounded bored. I looked at the board again. I didn't know how I had missed that coming. But then Nina always had been a better chess player than me. But it was time to make my move now.  
  
"Nina...I thought maybe you could talk to Jana. You two used to be friends and I was thinking maybe she could maybe intercede for me." Ella finally moved her piece confident that Nina would take my rook and then she could move her king to safer ground.  
  
"Check. Ella, Jana and I haven't been friends since I was changed. She'd kill me if I gave her the chance. Which I won't. Really though. If the Council offered you a way out then that's one thing, just go ahead and betray me. None of this second hand shit."  
  
I watched Nina's black eyes. I couldn't tell whether Nina wanted me to admit it or not but I knew this wasn't good. Better to pretend to concentrate on the game, then to say something and find myself in a lot of trouble. Nina and I had been friends for years but ever since Nina had become a vampire there had been another element to our friendship. I had been born and raised a witch, and vampires and witches did not get along traditionally.  
  
"Don't pretend you didn't hear me Ella. I know you did. You've been giving off a guilty vibe all night. Now tell me what the Council wants you to do to clear your name and I'll see if I can help, ok?"  
  
Sometimes I wondered just how Nina managed to read her like that. I know what her power feels like. And I know what Nina's mind feels like. Or at least I had known back when Nina was a witch. Nina had avoided contact with my aura ever since she had changed. In some ways it was a relief, and I figured she knew that that was a line she couldn't cross if we wanted to stay friends. I would know if Nina had actually touched my mind. So it couldn't be that she was just reading that from my thoughts. Which meant she had expected me to betray her. Somehow that was an even worse thought then her searching my mind.  
  
"I hadn't made up my mind. I just thought that this way I could do what Adianna asked and you're better than Jana anyway and it would all turn out okay. I didn't really mean for you to get hurt. It wasn't like that."  
  
Well that came out smoothly, I thought. Why is it that I always feel like I'm twelve years old around her? And I still can't tell if she angry with me or not. She has to be angry with me. I betrayed her. Well I didn't r mean to betray her. Or I hadn't thought of it like that. Not really. But she'll see it that way and I'll be screwed. Or maybe not, because while Nina continued to look at me, she drummed her fingers on the table and gave her "You are such a child" sigh. And then she said something I wasn't expecting.  
  
"I know this is hard for you. It was hard for me and I wanted out. You didn't."  
  
I could tell that Nina's attempt at forgiveness was hard for her. She had never been big on forgiving people. It was also rare to hear her admit weakness, either emotional or physical. But evidently I rated high enough on her list of confidantes to not only gain an attempt at reconciliation but to get a glance at who she was. Because that had been very personal information. She had never implied that it had been the least bit difficult to be changed. I had always assumed that she would be unable to understand how hard it was for me to be practically disowned. But maybe she knew more about it then I had realized.  
  
"It bothered you?" I asked tentatively.  
  
"Yeah. It was a big change." She laughed bitterly as she said that. "It was worse before you and I started talking again." There was an depth of feeling in her eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time. Even before she had been changed she had started cutting herself off from me. "You mean a lot to me Ella. I meant it when I said I would help you."  
  
I suddenly felt much much worse for even considering betraying her. She had been more important to me than anything else once, and if I had to admit that she still was. But I hadn't let myself think of her that way since she'd left. I was so sure that she hadn't cared as much as I had. But now I found myself beginning to reconsider that.  
  
"What did Adianna ask you to do?"  
  
"It doesn't matter. I couldn't really do that to you. I don't know what I was thinking."  
  
"Ella. My mother wouldn't ask you to betray me unless she somehow knew that we were still talking. If she knew that then you could be in more trouble then we realized. You have to tell me what she said word for word. I don't want you to get hurt here. This is between her and me."  
  
Not anymore, I realized. I remembered the look on Adianna's face when she found out about Nina. And I remembered what she had said about nothing stopping her. And I realized for the first time that we weren't going to clear my name. That I would never be a true witch again. If I wanted to live there might only be one option. And I wasn't sure I could face that right now. So I looked at the board again. And tried to concentrate on winning and not asking what I was afraid of. Not asking because I knew she would say yes. 


End file.
